


Bubblegum Facade

by ThoughtfulFangirl



Category: overwatch
Genre: Battle, Character Study, Gen, MEKA, Omnics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 15:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13367580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoughtfulFangirl/pseuds/ThoughtfulFangirl
Summary: D.Va has a very specific role to play in MEKA, and after a hard day's battle, she struggles with that role.





	Bubblegum Facade

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a head canon that D.Va hates the smell of Bubblegum after having it be a part of her brand in MEKA's marketing/propaganda.

_In her peripheral, the small dot of neon-green went dark. Hana's eyes swung for a moment to make sure she saw it correctly. The stream had cut out. She felt a wave of relief pour through her._

_Usually, being live helped her. She had an audience to perform for, so it kept her head in the game. It made the shouting, the crisp orders, the drum of gunfire and bass of robotic legs pounding the earth for purchase all seem surreal, part of the game. She always knew it wasn't, but tricking the mind to experience it like a game had powerful advantages._

_But today, things were hard. Harder than she remembered them before. The dissonance of her fun-loving, competitive fervor against her need to concentrate like she never had before, with no energy for wrapping herself in some in a singular personality, had become too much. And they squad B-14 was all but cornered and under hard fire. Her own squad needed to get to them._

 

"We need you on stage in five, D.Va." Hana didn't look away from her mirror, and the busy stage manager hurried on past the dressing room. 

On the other side of the room, her MEKA PR manager, Mok, put a magazine with her face on it down and stood up, off the couch. He walked over to Hana's chair and put his hands on the back of it, gripping the back sides and looking at her reflection intently. "You know what to do kid. It's just like usual. We had a great victory today. Okay?" 

Hana raised her eyes from her own reflection to look at Mok's. He didn't usually try to pep talk her—she usually never needed it. It jarred her to realize how far gone she was, that she hadn't built up her facade enough after the battle. She felt like she was out there still. It hadn't been more than two hours pass the time they'd fallen back toward the compound, really, so it should be no surprise after all. But why couldn't she keep her hands from shaking if she lifted them out of her lap? Why was her face so smooth? Untouched? The battle out there had been perhaps one of the deadliest she'd been in, and here she was, unmarked and unharmed, at least physically. Unless her pounding heart and the unnatural heat flushing her skin turned into a heart attack. This didn't feel at all like how those were described though. Also, she wished the ringing would stop. 

 

 _The comm line opened up, heavy with static. "Unit D-01, we've lost four MEKAs. We need back up_ now _." Duri's voice cracked into Hana's ear. Their own unit had already lost two_

_"Copy B-14."_

_"D-01, disengage. We'll come up on B-14's flank."  Commander Sun instructed. "Min-Ji, Hotshot, cover our retreat. Now move out!"_

_The MEKAs around Hana began falling back, still firing, but preparing for the boost off to the east. Min-Ji and Hotshot's MEKAs threw out defense matrixes. "Commander, there's too many ahead for two MEKA's to hold alone!" Min-Ji's voice came through desperately, on the verge of panic. Hana liked Min-Ji. She'd been her first friend here, not treating her like a child at all. Hana hadn't fallen back yet for that reason, throwing her defense matrix up after Hotshot's went down, alternating. Three MEKA's had enough power in their Defense Matrixes to rotate between and hold off fire nearly indefinitely, but two would run out of power too quickly._

_"Min-Ji, hold your ground. D.Va, fall back! That's an order."_

_"Lowering Defense Matrix." D.Va said, pressing the communication buttn as she said it. "Preparing to fall back."_

_"Commander Sun!—"_

_"Stand your ground Min-Ji!" Commander Sun's voice was sharp. A moment later, D.Va hit her boost and flew off after the rest of her unit, leaving Min-Ji and Hotshot behind._

_Hotshot's voice, light and excited, came through saying, "C'mon Ji! We can take these tin cans! Then the rest of the unit will owe us for having saved their sorry asses!"_

 

As Hana stood to pull on her old fashion designed sport's jacket—pink as her MEKA and blue as a robin's egg—Mok pushed something into her shaking hands. Hana lifted the soft, thick packet. She looked down. More pink; her brand of bubblegum. There was the little rabbit head on the outside of the wrapper. The all too familiar, sickly scent of bubblegum wafted up to her. She hadn't felt hungry since the battle was over, but they'd made her eat a protein bar and drink some water. It felt hard and heavy in her stomach now, and this scent just made it turn over. 

"Hold onto that if you need to. Keep your hands steady. Go ahead and take one now." 

"Don't tell me what to do." Hana snapped, sounding more like herself than she expected. It had the desired effect though. Wary relief washed into Mok's eyes. He thought he had her back. "I know how to do this better than you." She flipped her hair out from under the collar of her jacket. Yes. Now she could see that he believed everything was back to as how it should be. She saw him shift his stance—feet shoulder width apart, hips slightly forward, shoulders squared. He was more military than PR. He had always been here more to make sure to tell the MEKA narrative how they wanted, not to tell her how to be a celebrity. She knew that all on her own. 

"You're right. So get out there and do it! Remember, they can't have any hint of how bad it got out there." 

"You mean how bad it _is_ out there." Her voice was light and sassy, not at all bitter and dark... how she really felt. This was why they'd cut out her feed wasn't it, during the battle? Maybe if she had been able to keep up her facade, they could have played up that, while there were losses for MEKA, there were more for the omnics. But her mask had slipped.

Mok's eyebrows had lowered, darkening his brow with anger at her insubordinance. This wasn't an unusual exchange, but it could make him suspicious just now. 

Hana leaned in over to look in the mirror and made a show of inspecting her eye-liner and touching it up. "What's the story about losing the stream? Technical difficulties? You know the audience is going to want to hear why they didn't get to watch the rest of the game."

"Oh yes. Thank you for reminding me—" 

"This is what I do, Mok." She infused the words with exasperation at Mok's ineptitude. He waved it off as usual. 

"We did technical difficulties last time. Tell them you bumped the signal." He had a weasel's look on his face. She was quite certain they had planned to go with technical issues until she'd annoyed him enough. 

She put her eyeliner down. "If you think they'll believe that." She waved airily. "I suppose everyone makes mistakes sometimes." Putting her eyeliner down had put he hand back by the pack of gum. She picked it up and slipped two sticks out. Eight remained in the packet. She didn't unwrap either stick, just kept them in her hand and slipped the rest of the pack in her pocket. 

"They're ready for you." 

 

_"D-01 where are you?! We're down to four MEKAs. We need backup now!" Druri called from ahead of them._

_"Commander Sun! We can't get out from under this fire—" An explosion cut off the communication, but everyone heard Min-Ji's cry. That whole sector had gone up. The little electronic indicators for where Min-Ji and Hotshot's MEKAs were went black. Offline._

_"That explosion should keep Omnics from coming up behind us." Someone commented, for even the omnics near that explosion would also be gone._

_Just like Min-Ji and Hotshot were now gone. If there had been even three of them behind, they could have retreated after the rest of D-01 had fallen back._

_"We must abandon mission." Commander Sun said through the communicator. It was uncharacteristic of him, commenting in battle rather than ordering._

_"Commander! We have a chance at least getting B-14 out. There are no omnics behind us. Their four plus our remaining six is a full unit. It should be enough to get to them and back to base." It was his second in command, Mun, speaking. She was smart and calculated. Only age kept her from being a commander of her own._

_"We can't risk it. Fall back!"_

_"I'm sorry Commander. I can't leave Duri out there when we know we'd have enough!" Mun insisted. "I'm going on ahead."_

_"We're going with Mun Commander!" Someone called out. No one was falling back as Sun ordered._

_"D.Va, fall back now!" He ordered in a voice that brooked no arguments. D.Va's fists tightened around her controls. Would they dismiss her? If she also refused? She closed her eyes, and turned her MEKA around. As she and Sun retreated, Druri got back on the communicator just long enough to plead for help, scream, and communications to go dead._

 

As D.Va made her entrance, she determined not to think about it. Two MEKAs made it home. Mun was one of them, and she had nothing to look forward to in MEKA holding. No one from B-14 had survived. 

Determined to pull herself together, Hana opened her palm as she walked across the stage toward the podium to make her public statement. She lifted the two pink sticks enough that cameras would be able to catch her brand before she popped them in her mouth and crumpled the wrappers. They caught in her dry mouth. For a moment, she struggled to chew. She kept her face happy, waving as she went, but found herself momentarily alarmed that she would choke on it. 

And then saliva finally rushed in, almost too much. She swallowed quickly, almost swallowing one of the sticks of gum in the process. It made her cheeks sting, as though it was sour instead of sweet she was tasting. 

"What a day!" She said as she reached the microphone. "It was an intense stream wasn't it folks?" Hands raised so suddenly about the room that she absurdly pictured that old American Whack-a-Mole game. She almost wished she had a giant mallet to whack their arms down with. 

"So intense, I think I hit the button to end the stream without meaning. What a fool I felt when I realized I'd been talking to dead air!" The hands had gone down as she'd continued. This was the question they had for her, and now the audience laughed. "Before you think it means I'm losing my touch, rest assured it's the _only_ mistake I've made today!" Strangely, the lie itself came out easily. She should have stayed with Min-Ji and Hotshot. She should have gone with Mun to help Druri and her crew. 

She popped her gum at that moment, causing the scent to fill the air and choke her as she breathed in. Fighting back the sudden urge to vomit, she struck a pose instead, playing it up for her adoring, ignorant audience.


End file.
